The FBI destroyed the mob in the 70’s/80’s
I was on the phone with one of the connected gentlemen in this article [I won’t specify which one] when the gentlemen in suits came in and arrested him. I heard part of the overall conversation over the phone because he hadn’t hung up properly [I do loves me some hands free phone action … :D]
I have dealt with a fair number of connected people over the years between working for an alarm company and a waste management company. The people who are connected do actually have legit businesses, and some semi legit businesses.
And my high school chem teacher’s father in law was one of the upper level connected guys in Buffalo. Nice guy, gave interesting parties.
Not in a professional capacity, although a few years ago I had to travel to Florida for business (from NJ). It was just one overnight, but I had my roll-on luggage, a small briefcase with my laptop, a book, etc. At the gate I showed my ticket and walked down the jetway, where people were backed up and standing, waiting to board.
The two guys in front of me looked like they had just stepped off the set of The Sopranos. Mid-50s, salt & pepper hair slicked back Goomba-style, dressed identically in black leather tassel loafers, black slacks, black leather sportcoat, but one wore a black T-shirt and the other had a perfectly pressed and starched white button-down shirt. They had no luggage with them, not even a small carry-on bag. From their attire and overall, stereotypical “Mob” look, I imagined that they were heading to Florida to “take care of some quick business” and would be on a return flight to NJ a few hours later.
Hahahahahahahahhahahahahahah!!
I work on the NW side of Chicago and I can guarantee the outfit is alive and well. I have customers named Accardo and DiFronzo. Nice guys but I keep it strictly business nonetheless. I sure as hell wouldn’t borrow money or ask favors from them.
Given the neighborhood I grew up in in the Bronx, some of the people I knew undoubtedly had mob connections. I wasn’t aware of any specifically, however. My sister, though, dated a guy whose father was reputed to be mobbed up. AndLouie Lump Lump lived in my brother’s apartment building.
Back in the late 80s we were taken out to dinner at a well-known restaurant in San Diego. Our hosts had requested a table in a non-smoking section and we were launching into our desserts when two older men were seated not far away from us. They proceeded to pull out large cigars and light up. Our host asked the waiter to inform them that it was the no-smoking section. He said he wasn’t going to do that, that the section was no longer non-smoking, and that our party of 8 was free to leave any time if we didn’t like that. He seemed very nervous about it, and I’ve always wondered who those two guys were.
“That’s my family, Cell Guy. That’s not me.”
I’ve been to a restaurant that has since closed after shady business dealings with some militant Muslims were brought to light.
Why do I doubt he was telling the truth?
It seems like the people who are really involved in these things don’t talk about it with relative strangers.
I’ve known restaurant owners among others who dealt with the mob, in a sense. As far as I know they were dealing with legitimate businesses controlled by the mob. I don’t know that anyone was threatened in any way, and in one case the owner of a pizza place said the mob business was giving him the best deal for tomato sauce and cheese. There could have been a lot of things they didn’t tell me though.
Very tangentially. I was at work in New Orleans, and a couple of guys came in and asked to see one of our salesmen, who was out. They told me to tell him that Rocky and Angelo stopped by.
When I was in college in New Jersey, I often would go to the local Starbucks to read. Over the course of the year, I got to know a barrista in particular - a girl, around my age - and we became friendly with each other, talking and joking around whenever she had free time at work.
Towards the end of the year, she’d mentioned that she was going to be leaving soon, but that she really valued my friendship and that her brothers were in the Russian mob, so if I ever had any problems or issues I needed “taken care of,” to let her know.
I held onto the piece of paper that she gave me, giving me a few phone numbers. But, being a lowly college student, I didn’t really have any enemies, and even if I did, using that as a resource would be like killing a mosquito with a 5-ton boulder.
Also, I didn’t want to owe any favors. That rarely turns out well.
I had a roommate in college who had a friend in NJ who had a business that supplied a lot of restaurants in NYC. Once when the roommate was visiting, his friend took him to a restaurant in Little Italy where he knew the owner and claimed it was a mob hangout. As they were eating dinner, they suddenly heard a series of loud pops from outside. Roommate just about crapped himself, thinking they were under fire. Turns out there was a Chinese restaurant opening across the street and they were setting off firecrackers to celebrate. 
Not THE Mob but I was associated with local men that were like the Mob.
For example; when I was 16 I applied for a local government part-time job and didn’t get it. My family “friend” on Sunday morning found out about it. On the same day in the afternoon I got a letter from the government official delivered by a mailman giving me the job. He got an elected official to go to his office, write and sign the letter, and got a US postal employee to come in on a Sunday, cancel the stamp and drive to my house with a single phone call.
That IMO is a bit Mobish.
One of my very good friends in high school was a welder. Their house didn’t look like it belonged to a welder. His dad’s hands were the cleanest looking hands I’ve ever seen on a welder.
I dated their daughter briefly. They told me to stop. I did. I felt it was for the best.
I had a great-uncle who was a booze smuggler for the Jewish mob back in the 1930s - long before I was born, of course. He was a “black sheep”, the rest of the family disowned him.
He wasn’t very successful at it. His truck was hijacked and he was shot to death. Allegedly, he was shot so many times his body was more or less cut into pieces, and they had to sweep up what was left into a bag and bury that. However, this may be a bit of an exaggeration passed down through family lore.
:smack:
…friend’s FATHER was a welder.
Oh yeah, and I have mentioned it here before. Involved a guy in the Midwest beef industry, livers to be exact.
Frozen livers. We need to move more frozen beef livers. And spleens.“What can we do for you, Dallas to move more livers? I tell you what, let’s go salmon fishing out on the ocean tomorrow, just you, me, and this big stereotypical mafia goon that is always hanging around with me an never saying anything. He’s my son in law.” It will give us a chance to talk.
I think it was the Kansas City beef cartel and they were run by the Sicilians. “Larry” looked like Martin Scorsese.
I worked in a freezer warehouse and unloaded 70 pound boxes of frozen livers before dawn for use in a rendering plant and for pet food flavors.
Jimmy Hoffa probably went into a batch of Ocean Feast kibbles.
My eldest brother went into the Army after graduating college and got assigned to the Berlin Wall rather than Vietnam. Had a little trouble separating when his tour was up because he supposedly got involved with the black market.
Friend’s father was found dead in the trunk of his car, he was an accountant.(Detroit in the 70s)